Day of surgery (to remove ectopic bone)

We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 this morning.  We went through admittance and Matt received a small dose of radiation to help prevent ectopic bone from forming again after today's surgery.  We happened to pass Dr Mayo in the hall and said hello.  Matt yelled back, "Save the screws!"  He's hoping to get the screws that Dr Mayo will be taking out from his PAO in September.

Matt was rolled away for surgery at 8:30.  It was a long wait and I didn't hear anything from Dr Mayo until 3:40 in the afternoon.  The surgery went well but took longer than expected because there was a lot of ectopic bone.  He removed about an equivalent of 1 1/2 cups of bone and also cleaned out some scar tissue.  Dr Mayo was able to enter through the same incision spot from last surgery so Matt won't have any additional scars.  He lost a bit of blood but they reused what blood pooled and siphoned it back somehow.

Matt awoke from the anesthesia feeling a bit nauseous and threw up once.  The nurses graciously changed his bedding and then gave him some anti-nausea medicine which helped.  He's on an IV for pain medication and can control it himself.  So far he hasn't taken much.  He wants to do all he can to avoid having an ileus again.

They put him on a hip CPM in bed and he's doing well with it moving his leg up and down.  It's currently set at 40 degrees flexion and Dr Mayo wants him to work up to 90 degrees in the next two weeks.

Again, Matt has a catheter and also a hemo-vac to drain the excess blood from his surgery sight.  He's on oxygen and has an IV with saline to keep him hydrated as well as some antibiotics.

It's been a long day.  But we're doing well and are thankful for how God has brought us through.